“Virtual Vodou, Actual Practice: Transfiguring the Technological” by Alexandra Boutros (Center for Religion and Media, New York University)

Abstract

Haitian Vodou is often assumed to be locally bounded, pre-modern, and distinctly non-technological. Yet contemporary Vodou practice is shaped by a matrix of technologies that reconfigure the cosmographic spaces of the religion and expand the global reach of a culturally specific tradition. While practitioners consciously and strategically shape new technology and media for religious purposes, the virtuality engendered by this reshaping has its counterpart in pre-existing cosmologies and rituals of Vodou. At the same time, Vodou circulates within popularized and futuristic narratives of technologized religiosity starting, perhaps, with the writings of science fiction author William Gibson who coined the term cyberspace and integrated the lwa (gods and goddesses of Vodou) into a universe where the merging of the human form and technology made a form of cybernetic possession possible. This paper will examine how seemingly new technologies, such as the internet and computer, structure a Vodou practice that is commensurate with a history of the religion. It will also explore how a (sometimes re-appropriated) cybernetic understanding of Vodou is circulating among practitioners as a powerful metaphor for the social expansion of the religion.

About the Author

Alexandra Boutros is currently working as a post-doctoral fellow (under the sponsorship of Le Fonds Québécois de la recherche sur la société et la culture) at the Center for Religion and Media, New York University, and is a former fellow of the Center for Religion, Media and Culture at the University of Colorado at Boulder. As a graduate of McGill University’s Department of Communication Studies, Alexandra’s research interests have included transnationalism and globalization, new media and digital technologies, urbanism, orality, visual culture, popular culture and popular music, in addition to her work in the growing field of religion and media. Her doctoral dissertation, Altered States: Travel, Transcendence and Technology in Contemporary Vodou (under consideration) examines how the burgeoning growth of Vodou in North America intersects with commodity culture, media representation and technology use as newcomers seek and find this formerly secretive religion. Her current research is comparative and focuses on the appropriation of seemingly secular technologies by contemporary religious groups.  Looking at what could be classified as spiritual (or spiritualized) techne in Afrofutusit conceptualisations of Vodou, Raelian cloning, Transhuman conceptualisations of the cyborg, and technopagan uses of new technologies, this research examines tensions generated around what gets to count as religious knowledge and practice as religious groups mediate ritual, identity and transcendence through new media technologies and techno-scientific practices.

Contact and Further Links

Contact Information:  alexandra.boutros@nyu.edu